Photos: Winter North Of The Border

Photos by Andrew Shield, captions by someone who wasn't even there.

On a week that surfers south of the border were tuning into radio reports about flash flooding and destructive winds, surfers north of the Tweed had a slightly less anxious state of affairs.

Those with the time and inclination - and access to south swell spots - were keeping tabs on the swell pulses and working the tidal shifts.

Photographer Andrew Shield spent a few days chasing said spots, capturing those Queensland blues from the back of a ski, on land, and from the water too - not so easy after just returning from a stay in the balmy Telo Islands.

Reef Heazlewood angling away from the low northern sun

Under a cloudless blue sky an unidentified surfer optimistically grabs their rail

Reef, again, this time in a split screen squeeze

With shades of blue above and below, Sheldon Simkus glides across the middle ground

Swamp sheoak in the dunes, a well serviced peak out front

Marlon Harrison flaring for the lens

Towering blue glass

With his line set, Marlon Harrison drops his shoulders and relaxes into the ride

Temporary shipwreck - not uncommon on this coast

Unidentified swinging right from the wrong side of the peak

Even when the wind freshened the direction still made the waves inviting

Sheldon banks off an angled wall, Reef bares his alabaster pegs

The occasional lenticular cloud - indicating nearby high winds - was the only clue to the drama unfolding south of the border